Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author of Things Fall Apart, is dead according to a report published by the BBC. Born in 1930, he was a prominent writer and academic, and also a vocal critic of corruption in Nigerian politics. His final book, There Was A Country, was published last year and detailed his participation in the failed state of Biafra, which ended in 1970.
His most famous masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, was published in 1958, was set in an Igbo village in Nigeria, and highlighted the clashes between colonialism and traditional culture. It went on to sell more than 10 million copies around the world, and was translated into 50 languages.
His 1975 lecture « Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s « Heart of Darkness », later published in 1977, became controversial for his description of Joseph Conrad as « a thoroughgoing racist. »
Achebe was most recently a visiting professor at Brown University.
Rumors had spread earlier this month that he had already died, but Nigeria’s Daily Post confirmed that, although the rumors were not true, his health was failing.
